News and Deals: October 20, 2011 – TripAdvisor sued for naming dirtiest hotel in America, Airlines raise fares for 1st time since summer, The future of travel Floating on a cloud? and Egypt’s Nile cruises docked awaiting tourism recovery

Embattled local businessman Kenneth Seaton is suing travel website TripAdvisor for $10 million, claiming its recently naming his Grand Resort Hotel the dirtiest lodging in the country was a flawed effort to chase away his customers.

Seaton filed the suit in Sevier County Circuit Court, calling for a jury to hear the case in which he is seeking compensatory and punitive damages of $5 million each.

The Grand Hotel came out on top when TripAdvisor posted its list of the dirtiest hotels in America in January, a ranking derived from the reviews provided by the website’s registered users.

Holiday travelers may want to lock in airfares now, because they’re going up.

Major airlines are joining in the first widespread airfare increase since early August. The hike was initiated by Delta Air Lines Inc. late Tuesday when it raised fares by $4 to $10 on roundtrip flights across most of its U.S. routes, according to Rick Seaney of Farecompare.com. Soon after, United Continental Holdings Inc. matched the increases.

By early Wednesday, every other major airline had raised fares, including Southwest, according to JPMorgan’s Jamie Baker. Southwest had been running a fare sale for winter travel, excluding popular travel days around the holidays.

The newly launched Al-Hambra cruise ship sailed only twice on the Nile before President Hosni Mubarak was toppled in February and has been docked since then on the banks of the river, its plush fittings gathering dust awaiting the return of tourists.

Aswan, the site of majestic pharaonic ruins and one of the most famous stops on Egypt’s Nile cruises, has few of the tourists who normally throng its tree-lined river banks. Instead, dozens of ships are moored waiting for customers.

Of the more than 300 cruise liners usually touring this section of the world’s longest river, part of a tourist industry that is a major source of revenue in Egypt, not more than 40 are still setting sail, operators say.

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By: Matt Long

Matt has a true passion for travel. As someone who has a bad case of the travel bug, Matt travels the world in order to share tips on where to go, what to see and how to experience the best the world has to offer.
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